Gillian McCain
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Gillian McCain (born January 1, 1966) is a Canadian poet, author, and photography collector best known for ''Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk'', which she co-wrote with
Legs McNeil Roderick Edward "Legs" McNeil (born January 27, 1956) is an American music journalism, music journalist. He is one of the three original founders of the seminal ''Punk (magazine), Punk'' magazine; as well as being a former editor at ''Spin (magaz ...
. McCain is the author of two books of poetry: ''Tilt'' and ''Religion''. Portions of her "found photo" collection have been featured in magazines, published as limited edition books, and exhibited at the
Camera Club of New York The Camera Club of New York was founded in 1884 as a photography club. Though the Club was created by well-to-do "gentlemen" photography enthusiasts seeking a refuge from the mass popularization of the medium in the 1880s, it accepted its firs ...
gallery. She sat on the board of directors of the
Nova Scotia College of Art and Design NSCAD University, also known as the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD), is a public university, public art school, art university in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The university is a co-educational institution tha ...
in Halifax and was the Chair of the Board of Directors of the
Poetry Project The Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church was founded in 1966 at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery in the East Village of Manhattan by, among others, the poet and translator Paul Blackburn. It has been a crucial venue for new and experimental poetr ...
at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery New York City.


Education and personal life

McCain was born in
Bath, New Brunswick Bath is a former village on the Saint John River in Carleton County, New Brunswick, Canada. It held village status prior to 2023 and is now part of the town of Carleton North. Bath is famous for the annual "Bath Fall Fair" which took place e ...
, Canada. She attended the
University of King's College The University of King's College is a public university, public Liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Halifax, Nova Scotia.Roper, Henry. "Aspects of the History of a Loyalist College: King's College, Windsor, and ...
in
Halifax, Nova Scotia Halifax is the capital and most populous municipality of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the most populous municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of 2024, it is estimated that the population of the H ...
, where she earned a B.A in Literature. She moved to New York City in 1987 where she went on to complete a M.A. in Literature at
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
in 1990. In 1988, McCain studied in the
Naropa Institute Naropa University is a private university in Boulder, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1974 by Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chögyam Trungpa, it is named after the 11th-century Indian Buddhist sage Naropa, an abbot of Nalanda. The university desc ...
's summer program. Following her graduation from New York University, McCain was hired by the Poetry Project at
St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery is a parish of the Episcopal Church at 131 East 10th Street (near Stuyvesant Street and Second Avenue) in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The property has been the site of continuo ...
, where she served as program coordinator (1991–1994), editor of the Poetry Project Newsletter (1994–1995), and edited four issues of the lit-zine ''Milk''. In 1991 she founded the Friday Night Series—a weekly event that featured poetry, fiction, non-fiction, theme readings, tributes, lectures, performance art and music. In four years she brought in over four hundred artists. The series continues to this day. She devoted herself to writing full-time in 1995. McCain married James "Jim" Marshall, a writer, whom she met at the Poetry Project, in 2002.


Author


Non-fiction

In 1996, Grove Press published ''Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk'', which McCain co-wrote with
Legs McNeil Roderick Edward "Legs" McNeil (born January 27, 1956) is an American music journalism, music journalist. He is one of the three original founders of the seminal ''Punk (magazine), Punk'' magazine; as well as being a former editor at ''Spin (magaz ...
. Composed of the excerpts from hundreds of interviews, ''Please Kill Me'' presents a unique view of a volatile and complex period in American history. The book spans the early-Punk period of the
Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground were an American rock band formed in New York City in 1964. Its classic lineup consisted of singer and guitarist Lou Reed, Welsh multi-instrumentalist John Cale, guitarist Sterling Morrison, and percussionist Moe Tuc ...
through the rise and fall of Punk icons
Iggy Pop James Newell Osterberg Jr. (born April 21, 1947), known professionally as Iggy Pop, is an American singer, musician, songwriter, actor and radio broadcaster. He was the vocalist and lyricist of proto-punk band the Stooges, who were formed in 1 ...
,
the Ramones The Ramones were an American punk rock band formed in the New York City neighborhood Forest Hills, Queens in 1974. Known for helping establish the punk movement in the United States and elsewhere, the Ramones are often recognized as one of t ...
, and more. ''Please Kill Me'' was an instant hit and has since become a cult classic, inspiring a new era of musical oral histories. Upon its initial release ''Please Kill Me'' was a ''Time Out'' and ''Daily News'' Top Ten book of the year. A review in ''
Time Out New York ''Time Out'' is a global magazine published by Time Out Group. ''Time Out'' started as a London-only publication in 1968 and has expanded its editorial recommendations to 333 cities in 59 countries worldwide. In 2012, the London edition became ...
'' said the book, "Ranks up there with the great rock & roll books of all time." Excerpts of the book appeared in '' Vanity Fair'' in concert with the book's release in 1996. It is now published in Brazil, China, The Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Poland, Russia, Sweden and Spain. In 2014, McCain and McNeil collaborated again to edit ''Dear Nobody: The True Diary of Mary Rose'', a compilation of journal entries written by a 17-year-old Pennsylvania teenager who suffered from drug addiction, alcoholism, and cystic fibrosis. ''Publishers Weekly'' described the book as a "rare, no-holds-barred documentation of an American teenager's life, written for no audience but herself." ''Dear Nobody'' has garnered positive reviews since its release and has been praised as a true version of the 1971 novel Go Ask Alice. McCain and Mary Rose's mother were interviewed in 2014 for a segment called, "The Diary of a Teenage Girl: ‘The Jane Austen Of Juvenile Delinquents’" for the
Leonard Lopate Show Leonard Lopate (born September 23, 1940) is an American radio personality. He is the host of the radio talk show ''Leonard Lopate at Large'', broadcast on WBAI, and the former host of the public radio talk show ''The Leonard Lopate Show'', broad ...
on
WNYC-FM WNYC-FM (93.9 MHz) is a non-commercial public radio station, licensed to New York, New York. It, along with WNYC (AM), is one of the primary outlets for WNYC branded programming provided by the non-profit New York Public Radio (NYPR). Hi ...
.


Adaptations

Gillian McCain and Legs McNeil's ''Please Kill Me'' has been adapted into a stage production by French director Mathieu Bauer. The "punk musical" was written in 2011 and has since been taken on tour throughout France by the Nouveau Theatre Montreuil.


Poetry

In her early writing career, Gillian McCain was initially intrigued by free verse poetry, however, while studying with poet
Larry Fagin Larry Fagin (July 21, 1937 – May 27, 2017) was an American poet, editor, publisher, and teacher, and a member of the New York School. Biography Born in Far Rockaway, New York City, Larry Fagin grew up in New York, Hollywood, and Europe. He beg ...
, she became attracted to prose poetry. McCain published her first book of poetry, ''Tilt'', in 1996. In ''Tilt'', McCain reflects on the impact the New York School of poetry and the day-to-day chaos and intensity of life had on her. Tilt has received accolades for its "chatty, detached style." Said poet John Ashbery of ''Tilt'', "Gillian McCain's poems are like urgent telegrams from the next door, or oddly but brilliantly cropped snapshots of a life that is going by." Author and poet Harry Mathews called it a, "brilliant collection of prose poems. McCain published another book of poetry, ''Religion'', in 1999. Her second published collection of poetry was very well received. "Her work features ‘I did this then I did that’ New York School immediacy, but undermines it with ironic distance that collapses any naïve faith in the immediate as a source of value," said poet Mark Wallace in a review in the Poetry Project Newsletter. McCain obtains lines for her poetry from a multitude of everyday sources, including overheard conversations and random lines from books, magazines, and newspapers. She says that writing poetry is like "treasure hunting." The Encyclopedia of The New York School Poets describes her thusly: "As a poet, she writes prose that manages to be both playful and deadly serious in its criticism of its of FORM, the forms of contemporary society, and the forms of opposition to society that the readers of New York School poetry may take for granted a little too readily."


Photography


''Help Me: Found Photos from the Collection of Gillian McCain''

In 2010 Gillian McCain co-curated (with artist Megan Cump) a selection of "found photographs" from her collection. Entitled "''HELP ME''," the photographs were exhibited at the gallery of the Camera Club of New York. Forgotten, discarded, orphaned, lost; stolen, bought, discovered or found; the vernacular images in ''"HELP ME"'' were culled from McCain's extensive collection of photographs in formats including tin-types, cabinet cards, Polaroids, and snapshots. In ''The New Yorker'', photography critic Vince Aletti called the exhibition "exhilarating," stating, "Images of rifles, costumes, and injuries crop up repeatedly, but there's no real theme, only plenty of diverting quirkiness and inspiration." The ''Help Me'' exhibition was also featured in the December, 2010 issue of the French magazine, ''Photo''. A limited edition book also titled ''Help Me'', was published in conjunction with the exhibition.


"Fifty Fotos Found by Fang With Text by The Hound"

McCain's ''Fifty Fotos Found by Fang With Text by The Hound'', a collaboration with husband (and fellow author) James "The Hound" Marshall in 2010, features found photos with descriptions penned by Marshall and commentary by readers from his popular music website where the photos were initially posted. "Fang" and "The Hound" are sobriquets for McCain and Marshall respectively. Author Joe Bonomo, in his blog ''No Such Thing As Was'', says of the book, "In Fifty Fotos Found there's young love, old love, doubtful love, drinking, hamming, military life, beach bums and barflies, nudie posters on the wall, maybe-pimps, parties, teenagers, bedrooms, and basements, a generous slice of living enacted by mysterious strangers caught in perpetuity doing strange things, or things so ordinary that they become strange. Blink and you'd miss it." McCain's found photo collection has also been featured in the 2014 issue of the Columbia Poetry Review. A feature entitled, "Sleepwalking: Photographs from the Collection of Gillian McCain" was published in issue 14 of ''Lid'' magazine in 2012.


Selected works

Non-fiction: * ''Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk'' with Legs McNeil (Grove Press, 1996) * ''Dear Nobody: The True Diary of Mary Rose'' with Legs McNeil (Sourcebooks Fire, 2014) * ''Help Me: Found Photos from the Collection of Gillian McCain'' with Megan Cump (2010) Poetry: * ''Tilt'' (The Figures/Hard Press, 1996) * ''Religion'' (The Figures, 1999) * ''Descent of the Dolls: Part I'' (a collaboration with Jeffery Conway and David Trinidad, BlazeVOX ooks 2017)


References


External links


pleasekillme.com

dearnobodydiary.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:McCain, Gillian 1966 births Living people Canadian women poets 20th-century Canadian poets 20th-century Canadian women writers